One MP – Peter Luff (Con Mid Worcestershire) – has even said he may quit the Commons if he can’t employ his wife as his secretary.

But Cabinet Minister Harriet Harman has promised MPs they can ignore the report, at least until it has been approved by a new committee called the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

The trouble is that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority doesn’t even exist at the moment.

It means the reforms are unlikely to be in place by the time of the next election in May.

n WITH bad news coming out of Afghanistan every day, few MPs are prepared to say what many people are thinking.

One exception is David Winnick (Lab Walsall North), who asked the Defence Secretary: “Is it not necessary, after eight years, to consider what precisely can be achieved by the British troops in Afghanistan?

“I am against further troops being sent and I believe that a reappraisal of our entire position there is necessary and what the public want.”

n COVENTRY MP Jim Cunningham (Lab Coventry South) is demanding a new law forcing employers to at least write back to unsuccessful job applicants and tell them they haven’t got the job.

MPs feel that in the current dire economic circumstances, this is more encouraging for jobhunters than simply being ignored.